Standing Together

Chapter 22

They're putting away their dishes when the doorbell rings, which seems to shock Dean much more than Castiel would have expected.

"What's that face for?" Castiel asks him.

"Nothing, just that nobody ever comes to my house," Dean says. "I'm kind of concerned."

Castiel chuckles. "Would you like me to get the door for you so you don't have to live in a constant state of confusion?"

"No, actually, I think you should not come to the door, because if it's your crazy stalker fans, I don't want them to know you're here," Dean says.

"Oh, good point," Castiel says. "I'll stay here and put the dishes in the dishwasher, since you seem to think the sink will auto clean them for you, and you can go make sure there's no psycho fan."

"Alrighty, be right back." Dean presses a kiss to his cheek before disappearing down the hall.

Castiel does what he said he would, but when Dean doesn't come back after a minute, curiosity gets the better of him, and he sneaks over to the door, hiding behind the wall to eavesdrop.

"— can come, too," a woman's voice says. "I'm sure everyone would like to meet him."

"Are there going to be fireworks?" Dean asks.

"Of course," the woman says. "It wouldn't be a Fourth of July party without them."

"Then we can't go," Dean says.

"Um..." There's a pause as she tries to figure out how he came to that conclusion. "You could come for the first couple hours and leave before the fireworks start, if you want?"

"Cas can't handle the fireworks," Dean tells her. "Like, at all. Even just being near them. I would love to come, and I'm sure he would, too, but it's just not going to work out. I'm just going to put on a movie and not tell him when you guys are going to start them, and maybe it'll block out the noise."

"What — oh, because of the terrorist attack in Louisiana," she realizes aloud. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even think about that."

"It's fine," Dean says. "You guys have your fun. Tell everyone Cas and I say 'hi.'"

"Will do," she says. "If you change your mind, you know where to find us."

Castiel waits until the front door closes before he steps out into the hallway. "What movie are we watching?"

"Cas? I thought you were —"

"I got curious," Castiel interrupts. "What movie are we watching tonight?"

Dean lets out a sigh and shrugs. "I was going to make you watch the Captain America movies — you know, for America Day — and hope that you wouldn't hear the fireworks or think they're part of the movie or something but now that you know my evil scheme, it's not going to work, so I don't know."

"If you want to go to the party, we can do that," Castiel tells him. "I can go home before the fireworks so I don't make a scene."

Dean walks over and puts his hands on his fiancés shoulders. "Cas, their parties are the stupidest thing the world has ever seen. They do them for every single minor holiday, and each time, I do whatever it takes to get out of them. I should be thanking you for getting me out of this."

Castiel chuckles. "Okay, now I feel better," he says. "What's so bad about them, though? Have you even been to one?"

"Yeah, when I first moved in," Dean says. "It was all corn hole and slightly tipsy dancing to trash pop music. We're going to have way more fun making burgers and watching movies."

Castiel chuckles. "Alright, if you say so."

~~

"So, what do you want to watch?" Dean asks, turning the tv on. "Marvel marathon? Or Sherlock, so we can lament our connections to Benedict Cumberbatch that we lost thanks to those stupid colonists' selfishness

Castiel sits down on the bed, kicking his legs out in front of him. "I don't know."

"Want me to pop Captain America in, or are you just saying you don't know but actually do know what you want to watch?"

Castiel shrugs and says sheepishly, "That, or we could watch Aladdin?"

Dean gapes at him. "You want to watch that again?"

"If you don't want to —"

"No, if you want to watch Aladdin, we can watch Aladdin."

Dean turns the DVD player on and switches Beauty and the Beast with Aladdin. He sits down on the bed with his fiancé, skipping through all the previews before putting the remotes on his bedside table and luring down. Castiel lies down next to him and wraps his arms around the boy's torso.

They're at Castiel's favorite part — Jasmine's about to go off on the so-called prince on her balcony — when the first of the fireworks goes off. Castiel squeezes his fiancé harder, and he can feel his heart pounding in his chest, his chest getting tighter.

"Hey, Cas, it's okay," Dean says quickly. "Shh, you're okay."

Castiel pushes himself into a sitting position and buries his head in his hands. Dean puts an arm around his shoulders, rubbing his back soothingly.

"Breathe," Dean whispers. "You're okay, sweetie. It's just the fireworks."

Castiel manages a small nod. He takes a deep, shaky breath, his entire body trembling, and wills himself to calm down — if only it were that easy.

"Hey, Cas," Dean murmurs. "Look what part we're on." He taps his fiancé and gestures to the tv.

Castiel glances up just long enough to see the magic carpet hand Aladdin a flower to give to Jasmine. He doesn't think anything of it until he hears Dean's voice, singing the words that not long ago, he had been rolling his eyes at.

"When did you last let your heart decide?" Dean sings softly, his mouth just next to his fiancé's ear. On the brief pause before the next line, Dean presses a kiss to the side of Castiel's head, then picks up with, "I can open your eyes; take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways, and under on a magic carpet ride."

Dean takes Castiel's hands and interlaces their fingers, forcing the boy to look up. Dean offers him a smile as he sings, "A new fantastic point of view! No one to tell us 'no,' or where to go, or say we're only dreaming." Then, in a twist Castiel probably should have anticipated, he switches to a very high-pitched falsetto for Jasmine's, "A whole new world! A dazzling place I never knew!" Keeping with both the tune and the voice, he continues, "This is so off pitch! It's really bad! Welcome to a whole new world of pain."

Castiel can't help but laugh, and when Dean smiles, he can't miss the glint of adoration in the boy's eyes.

"Ready?" Dean asks, as Aladdin and Jasmine begin their duet of the chorus. Castiel isn't sure where he's going with it, until — "Squack!"

Castiel doubles over in laughter. His imitation of the bird's screech is so comically offbase, but somehow not that wrong.

"Well, would you look at that?" Dean says with a grin. "Maybe movie day really is all it takes to calm you down."

But the neighbors launch off another firework and Castiel flinches, dropping Dean's hands and clamping his own over his ears.

Dean frowns and puts an arm around his fiancé. "Okay, so maybe not."